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In this study, heavy metal and microbial safety assessment of raw and cooked pumpkin and Amaranthus viridis leaves grown in Abakaliki, Nigeria, was examined. The levels of lead (Pb), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg) were evaluated using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The microbial cells were counted and further identified to species level using 16S rDNA and ITS rDNA sequencing analysis at CABI microbial identification services United Kingdom (UK). The results showed that the heavy metal concentrations of lead (10.5, 12.0), arsenic (7.5, 8.5), chromium (0.9, 0.1), and mercury (13.1, 14.0) in the pumpkin and A. viridis leaves, respectively, were above maximum acceptable limit according to relevant national and international food regulatory agencies (Tables 1 and 2). Cooking significantlyreduced the concentrations of the heavy metals at (p > 0.05) to or below, lead (6.8, 8.4), arsenic (5.1, 6.1), chromium (0.6.0.1), and mercury (9.5, 11.4) in the pumpkin and A. viridis leaves, respectively, but still not to international safe limit. The result of the microbial safety assessment showed that the microbial load of both the pumpkin and Amaranthus viridis leaves were above acceptable limit and the contaminating organisms were identified as Escherichia coli (504743), Klebsiella pneumonia (504744b), and Aspergillus flavus (504740).This study therefore shows that the vegetables (pumpkin and A. viridis leaves) contain unacceptable levels of toxic heavy metals and potentially dangerous pathogenic microorganisms, thus present significant health risk for the consumers.

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Summary Water kefir microbiota was used to develop novel soy whey‐based beverages that have antioxidant activity. In the present study, comparative phenolics, antioxidant and metagenomic composition of the soy whey beverages fermented using three different water kefir microbiota, named WKFS‐A, WKFS‐B and WKFS‐C were investigated. WKFS‐B beverage had the highest concentrations of isoflavone aglycones (208.73 ± 2.78 mg L−1) and phenolic acids (132.33 ± 3.41 mg L−1) compared with WKFS‐A (193.88 ± 1.15 mg L−1) and (91.73 ± 2.34 mg L−1) and WKFS‐C (160.63 ± 1.76 mg L−1) and (97.13 ± 2.63 mg L−1), respectively. The WKFS‐B also showed higher DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power compared with WKFS‐A and WKFS‐C beverages. Microbial species diversity index analysis showed that a higher concentration of isoflavone aglycones, phenolic acids and increased antioxidant activity in the WKFS‐B beverage correlates with the higher relative abundance of Lactobacillus genus. This study thus revealed that Lactobacillus dominated water kefir microbiota produces soy whey beverages with high phenolic acids, isoflavone aglycones and antioxidant activity.